Computer expansion device with USB interface

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a computer expansion device with a universal serial bus (USB) interface, more particularly to an expansion device having computer peripheral devices coupled to a USB interface signal Input/Output to meet the expansion requirements of portable computer.

2. Description of the Related Art

The development of computer tends to be compact in its design; the notebook computer among the portable computers is a good example. Since the integrity of computer functions is taken into consideration, therefore the optical disk drive, hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, and battery are indispensable peripheral devices. As to the actual computer operation, users generally install the operating system and application programs in a hard disk drive for their actual applications, and the notebook computer is usually used in the office or at home. Therefore, some computer manufacturers broke through the long existing hardware architecture of the notebook computer and developed a so-called “Desknote” computer. Such desknote computer removes some of the peripheral devices from the computer and definitely greatly reduces the weight and thickness of the computer. Therefore, the future computer system architecture only includes a motherboard, a hard disk drive and a housing, and the rest of peripheral devices will be connected to a computer externally.

If the aforementioned peripheral devices are connected to a computer with different ways and since the motherboard cannot provide so many ports, therefore repeatedly plugging and unplugging the devices will trouble the users very much. No doubt, notebook computers may use a docking station to connect different peripheral devices, but the pin assignment of the connector is custom-made with a specific specification depending on the port available on the notebook computer, which usually cannot fit all of the requirements and that is what users have been complaining the most. Therefore, using a common computer interface for sufficiently connecting the peripheral devices is an issue that manufacturers have to overcome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a computer expansion device with a USB interface, comprising an installation space in a casing for accommodating and positioning the desired devices; a circuit board, disposed in the housing and having a USB port and a power supply terminal, so that the computer can be connected by USB signal cables and receive external power supply; the USB port electrically coupled to a first USB interface signal IC by a circuit to have the functions of a hub, and such IC is electrically coupled to three connecting ends by circuits to connect the peripheral devices with cables and such IC is electrically coupled to a second USB interface signal IC by another circuit, and such IC being electrically coupled to four second connecting ends; wherein the three first connecting ends and a second connecting end selectively coupled a peripheral device with USB interface conversion function by electric connection such that the USB interface signals are transmitted, and the rest of the three second connecting end are respectively coupled to a USB interface socket. The present invention only uses one signal line for the connection to concurrently have the expansion function and the hub function, which can be regarded as one of the greatest ideas.

In view of the above description, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience accumulated from the engagement in the computer peripheral related industry and conducted extensive research to break through the inconvenience of externally connecting the computer peripheral one by one and resolve the aforementioned shortcomings by adopting the USB interface with the function of a hub for the signal connection and invented the computer expansion device with USB interface in accordance with the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is a perspective diagram of the disassembled parts of the computer expansion device according to the present invention.

<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a block diagram of the circuit board according to the present invention.

<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> is a perspective diagram of the assembled computer expansion device according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to the <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIGS. 1 through 3</figref>, basically, the computer expansion device according to the present invention comprises a housing <b>1</b> and a circuit board <b>2</b>.

Wherein the housing <b>1</b> has an installation space <b>11</b> for installing peripheral devices such as the accommodation and positioning of an optical disk drive A, a card reader B, a floppy disk drive C, and a hard disk drive D; a plurality of holes and slots disposed on the external surface of the housing <b>1</b> for exposing a USB port <b>21</b>, a power supply input terminal <b>22</b>, or at least one USB interface socket <b>25</b> and facilitating their connection. However, all these are prior arts and will not be described here.

The circuit board <b>2</b> comprises a USB <b>21</b> and a power supply terminal <b>22</b> for connecting the USB signal cable to the computer and obtaining the power supply for the operation of the foregoing peripheral devices respectively. The USB port <b>21</b> is electrically coupled to a first USB interface signal IC <b>23</b> (including but not limited to an IC with model number GL650USB) by a circuit, and three first connecting ends <b>231</b>, <b>232</b>, <b>233</b> are electrically coupled by a circuit such as a 5-pin USB connector adopting similar to the prior art hub that has at least 3 plug-and-play USB interfaces. The first USB interface signal IC <b>23</b> uses another circuit to electrically couple a second USB interface signal IC <b>24</b>, and such second IC <b>24</b> uses a circuit to electrically couple four connecting ends <b>241</b>, <b>242</b>, <b>243</b>, <b>244</b>, wherein the first second connecting end <b>241</b> is coupled to a 5-pin USB connector, and the other three connecting ends <b>242</b>, <b>243</b>, <b>244</b> each couples to a USB interface socket <b>25</b>. When the USB interface sockets <b>25</b> are used as shown in the figure, two pins are disposed in the front side of the housing <b>1</b> and one pin at the back side of the housing <b>1</b> to facilitate the installation of the peripheral devices such as the connection of a digital camera, a digital projector, a printer, a scanner, or a joystick.

Each connecting end <b>231</b>, <b>232</b>, <b>233</b> and <b>241</b> is connected by a USB cable <b>26</b> respectively to the peripheral devices having the USB interface signal conversion function such as the optical disk drive A and the hard disk drive D adopting the IDE-USB signal converter <b>3</b>, the floppy disk drive C adopting the FDD-USB signal converter <b>4</b>, and the card reader using the built-in memory card controller to convert its signals into USB interface signal and connected to the connecting end <b>232</b>. Since the aforementioned interface conversion is a prior art, therefore they will not be described here.

The signal converters <b>3</b>, <b>4</b> are built in the circuit board <b>2</b>; for example, each connecting end <b>231</b>, <b>233</b>, <b>241</b> is connected to its corresponding signal converter <b>3</b>, <b>4</b>, and can connect to different peripheral devices with the IDE interface socket and FDD interface socket, etc to obtain the expected functions. However, as to the production by manufacturers, the entire circuit board will be disabled or become a defective product if the signal converter is incorrectly soldered onto the circuit board. Therefore, the inventor of this invention proposes a solution by installing the signal converters <b>3</b>, <b>4</b> on a second circuit board <b>5</b> integrated to the corresponding peripheral device, such that the peripheral device itself has the interface signal conversion function. The modularization of such signal converter into a small sized second circuit board <b>5</b> can improve the yield rate of the circuit board <b>2</b>.

Therefore, in the present invention, the hub function of the USB interface signal and the design of the modularization of the signal converter are used such that the necessary peripheral devices for the notebook computer can be connected to the computer by a single externally connected USB signal cable. Although such arrangement occupies one USB port of the computer system, it gives three extra USB interface sockets, and a further expansion function. Furthermore, if the signal converter adopts the design of installing on a second circuit board, it can greatly reduce the defective rate. The present invention is definitely a great idea for the computer expansion device.

While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.